The recorded history
of Szymanowski's pre-eminent opera (the
other one is his Straussian shocker
Hagith - a Salome ‘look-alike’)
has not exactly been thronged with versions.
It has however done better than other
20th century ‘one-offs’ such as Enescu's
Oedip (2 versions EMI and a Roumanian
Electrecord LP set) or Bloch's Macbeth
(2 versions, both recentish, Capriccio
and Actes-Sud).

The AAD Mierzejewski
on Olympia was long ago deleted but
it still sounds splendidly atmospheric,
clear yet not so analytical that it
eliminates the mystery. Sadly it is
allocated only one track per Act and
is split across two CDs - the norm.
Regrettably it is coupled with Wodiczko's
mangled and much cut Harnasie. No libretto
provided.

The Koch-Schwann is
accommodated in a double-width case
and is without a coupling. It has a
good booklet with full libretto and
parallel translations. Satanowski is
a practised Szymanowski ‘hand’, as we
know from his recording conducting the
Second Violin Concerto and also the
orchestral songs. However his Roxana
is much taken with a spoiling Slavonic
wobble. Unaccountably that recording
too uses two CDs and is pretty tight-fisted
with tracking: once again one track
per act.

Rattle (EMI), predictably
has superb documentation. He also offers
the additional alternative concert version
of the Roxana aria. Stryja (Naxos) shares
with Rattle generous multiple tracking
within the Acts. Stryja has 28 tracks
and Rattle 25; 26 if you add in the
alternative concert version of Roxana's
aria.

Few people will make
the choice based on couplings. However
Rattle offers the most substantial additional
work in the shape of Leif Ove Andsnes’s
Symphonie Concertante. Even then
the total playing time for the two CDs
is circa 113 minutes, well short of
the 160 minutes of music that could
have been accommodated there.

The Naxos (Stryja)
has the full sung libretto but only
in Polish. There is a detailed English
synopsis and notes though. It's also
in a space-saving single-width double
CD case.

CD Accord's solution
is the most elegant so far. The whole
opera goes onto one well packed CD.
In fact it's the only single disc version
of the opera; the first ever. Documentation
is exemplary as is track allocation:
25 tracks. For the Szymanowski collector
wanting King Roger, and only King Roger,
the CD Accord is a natural choice.
This set also includes a strikingly
vivid colour drawing of Szymanowski
by Stanislaw Witkiewicz.

Of course all of these
discs (when you can find them; some
have been deleted) are at full price
apart from the Naxos which is a double
at bargain price level. The CD Accord
is at more than full price at £21.00
(GB) but then the opera is on just a
single packed disc with none of the
token fillerism that afflicts some of
other discs.

Kaspszyk's cast is
strong. You need only listen to Pasiecznik
as his Roxana at 2.34 (tr.3) as she
effortlessly floats her notes upwards.
This carries over into the occasionally
extracted Roxana's Song at tr.10 where
Roger’s queen, in ethereally high melisma,
invokes the King's mercy towards the
Dionysian Shepherd. OK, so this music
owes something to Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov
but there is an undenioably original
nirvana of otherworldliness as well.
Kaspszyk knows the ecstatic shimmer
of the writing as well as its volatile
urgency (tr. 11 at the start). He also
articulates its mercurial excitability
and his orchestra and chorus are with
him all the way. I am looking forward
to hearing this conductor's Symphony
No. 3 and Stabat Mater. Drabowicz's
Roger has a touch of the admirable John
Shirley-Quirk in his voice - a dark
tightness in the throat. In tr. 12 there
is an example of his indebtedness to
Stravinsky's Firebird (again
at end of tr. 14 ‘The secret depths
of life's passion’) but this is momentary.
Soon writing of smashing individuality
enters with an emphatic blast. The whirling
dance of the passions at tr. 15 draws
Roxana in and Roger turns away in despair
as the bewitching Shepherd works his
overwrought magic on Roxana. The boiling
climax of the wild dance recalls Ravel's
Bolero and the Brigands dance of abandon
in Szymanowski’s own Harnasie. The King
is like Dalua in Boughton's Immortal
Hour when he calls out in despair
‘My dreams, give me my dreams’. His
queen is already in thrall to this mesmerising
godlike Rasputin of a shepherd. At the
end the King finally succumbs to the
all-conquering pagan force of the shepherd
and the sun. The plot-line does not
have twists and turns. The piece is
an exercise in the tension that goes
between duty and seductive ideas.

The Satanowski set
does not have the transparency or upfront
impact of the Kaspszyk. While the EMI
is superbly recorded, and perhaps a
little less crowdedly up-front than
the CD Accord, Hampson has more vibrato
than Kaspzyk's Roger. Mierzejewski has
Hiolski's grainy and magnificently tawny
baritone in faintly hissy analogue.
Stryja on Naxos also has a by then older
Hiolski still sounding fit but straining
now; though in better sound than in
1965. In this most ecstatic, perfumed
and spiritual of operas - almost a series
tableaux about belief and sensuality
- Mierzejewski is outstanding and sounds
much better than I had remembered. The
Stryja is good although it has no translation
- just a very full track-keyed synopsis.
It has Hiolski (who still sounds the
business). The voices are recorded very
forward of the orchestra but at Naxos
price this good. If you are a Szymanowski
completist you will have to have the
Naxos anyway as it’s the only way to
get the 10 minute Potemkin music.
If you see the fabled Mierzejewski (Olympia
or possibly on other labels) snap it
up without delay. However Kaspszyk takes
the laurels for the most modern sound
in a performance evidently fully in
sympathy with Szymanowski's testament
to the tension between duty and delight;
ultimately to the primacy of delight.

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